Sweet Home ... Tennessee

42 is the answer, but what is the question?

Currently, it's: "How many states do I have left to cover?"

Yes, indeedy, I did another race!

Let me tell you a little about Fayetteville, Tennessee: It's the seat of Lincoln County, in Middle Tennessee, established in 1809, 85 miles SSE of Nashville and 25 miles north of Huntsville, AL. Moore County, where one can find Lynchburg and the home of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, is the next county over and just a short drive away. Fayetteville's population, according to the abovelinked municipal website: 7007. One of those people is my Aunt Kate.

My dad grew up in Fayetteville, along with his three siblings. Their mom grew up here, too, and her parents. In fact, four of my great-great-grandparents are buried in Rose Hill Cemetary. I've spent school vacations and family trips visiting here throughout my life, and although my "Ole Dad" never missed an opportunity to call me a Yankee, it's safe to say the Elk River metaphorically runs through my veins. (And every time I visit, I make sure some caffeine from the Elk River Coffee Company literally runs through my veins.)

Since retiring back to Fayetteville several years ago, Kate has volunteered her time in a lot of organizations in the community, one of which is the Imagination Library. The original Imagination Library project was started by Dolly Parton, to support early literacy and access to books for children in her home county in East Tennessee. The project has been a great success, and she has shared the model with communities throughout Tennessee and the rest of the country, as well as in the UK and Canada. Each chapter is locally funded, however, which is how we get back to the subject of yesterday's race.

Yesterday was the third annual Imagination Library 5k Run and 1 mi Walk, supporting the Imagination Library of Lincoln County. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, with clear, blue skies and temperatures (at race time) in the upper 60s/low 70s fahrenheit. The start and finish were located in Stone Bridge Park:

The replica bridge was built in June, 2000, according to the plaque.

My sister and I flew down for the weekend, separately, from our respective home bases (she's in Brooklyn). We did our best to coordinate our arrivals into Hunstville International Airport, but to paraphrase what is apparently a Yiddish proverb, when travelers make plans, airlines laugh. Juliet's flight got in a little early of her scheduled 7:30ish p.m. CDT arrival time, and mine was due at 8:35 p.m. Well, long story short, by the time it was 8:35 p.m. CDT, I was still sitting in the US Airways boarding lounge at National, waiting for our crew to come in from somewhere else so that our perfectly ready-and-waiting aircraft could take off and actually go to Huntsville. We finally got in sometime after eleven, and rolled in at Kate's house slightly after midnight. By the time I'd settled in enough to get to bed, I only had 5 1/2 hours before I had to wake up.

All of that considered, I was ready for an underwhelming race performance. It's taken me over half an hour to finish a 5k race before, and if that was to be my fate again, I was resigned to it. But that isn't to say I was going to give up before I started.

In fact, and I couldn't tell you exactly why (except that I'm still getting good returns on Coach Adam's advice), I had a pretty good run! The course was pretty easy, with just a few relatively gentle hills, and we passed right in front of Kate's house around the 1.9 mi mark, which was exactly when I needed to see my cheering section.

1/2 of the non-human portion of my cheering section, photographed before the race.

It was a lot of fun to run around a town I've gotten to know so well, through a lifetime of visits, and by the time I rounded the last corner and saw that I was fixin' to come in under 29 minutes, I was ready to sprint for the finish line!

Many thanks to Tom Wallace for this photo!

I haven't seen the overall standings yet, but I believe I came in 3rd in the female, 35-39, division, with a time of 0:28:55. [Edited: The results are posted here. My time is posted as 0:28:56, for some reason, but I'm not quibbling over one second. Turns out I came in 22nd overall, out of 76, and fifth overall for women!] That's better than my times in Portsmouth, NH, or San Francisco! Not bad, for so little sleep. In fact, not bad, full stop. And more importantly, I'm told the event raised over $3,000 for Imagination Library. That's a lot of books that can now find their way into eager, little hands and minds. Many congratulations to Teresa Brown and the rest of the organizers and volunteers!

Kate and Juliet came and met me at the park, shortly after I crossed the finish line.

We stuck around for part of the post-race prizes, during which I was very kindly presented with a mug from Elk River Coffee Company, just for having come all the way from RI for the race. (At which point I also realized I can honestly claim to have come in first place among runners from New England!) We would have stayed for the whole party, but we had to get to the Lincoln County Humane Society's casserole sale:

I'm told those brownie are "celestial". The gentleman who makes them does not give out the recipe, so that people will be sure and buy them to support the Humane Society. Not being able to eat brownies, I opted instead to get a big bag of locally-grown okra. Also, tater tot casserole is apparently a thing.

After doing our part to help the Humane Society (and support Kate's next-door neighbor, Rhonda, who organized the whole thing and still found time to run out and cheer for me as I ran by her house), we met Kate's friend Eugene for coffee at, you guessed it, Elk River Coffee Company.

The rest of the day was pretty much about napping. And some excellent vegetable biryani for lunch, which Kate had picked up for me the previous night at Sitar in Huntsville, while they were waiting for my flight.

So, my friends, that's eight down, forty-two to go, and I believe I'm done for 2012. But stay tuned, because I'm seriously considering starting off 2013 with a race in Jacksonville on Saturday, January 5 (currently still shows the 2012 date, but their calendar gives the 2013 date).

Oh, did I mention? I'm doing another race!

Wow, late summer/early fall turns out to be a low energy point for me. It's almost as though I had a job that left the summer free for pursuing any activity I wish, and then became madly busy in early September ... oh, wait.

So, I didn't do the Vermont race I'd been planning. This was for two primary reasons: (1) August 25-26 turned out to be move-in weekend for UVM, which I deemed not to be the best time one might choose for visiting Burlington. And (2) I just didn't really wanna. (I went diving twice that weekend, instead. It was lovely. Well, Friday was lovely. Sunday's conditions were sort of lousy, and we ended up with this really long surface swim against the current and ... oh, am I digressing?)

This means I'm still at 7. But not for long!

This coming Saturday, I will be (Lord willing and the creeks don't rise) running the Imagination Library 5k in my dad's hometown of Fayetteville, TN. My sister and I will both be going doing for the weekend, hanging out with our Aunt Kate, and enjoying a little Tennessee air—possibly from the porch swing.

I haven't been great about training lately, but I had a pretty good run this evening, faster than my usual training time. I'm feeling reasonably optimistic about finishing in under 0:30:00; anything shorter than half an hour, and I'm really quite a happy girl.

I'll let y'all know how it goes!

Let's start with the good news ...

I've had a great stay in Portland, OR. I love this city, I love my friend who lives here (and have really enjoyed those of his friends I've met these few days). Everyone here actually seems to understand the gluten thing really well, and gluten-free bakeries and other friendly offerings abound.

My friend Alberto has been a wonderful host, showing me around, introducing me to friends and parts of the city and markets and restaurants and free movies-in-the-park and generally being incredibly generous with his time and energy and also being incredible fun to be around.

Also, I had a good run this morning. It was hot, and I was tired, but I ran well. There were only 19 participants in the 5K event, which made me probably act more competitively than I do when there's a giant hoard and I can just relax and do my thing. When I rounded the corner to get in sight of the finish line and saw that I was going to break 25 minutes if I just sprinted, I ran my little heart out and for a brief, shining moment, thought I had just smashed my personal best by two whole minutes!

Well, I did finish the race in 24:59.

Here endeth the good news.

All in all, this race event was made of fail. First, the races (both the half-marathon main event and the 5K) took place far out of Portland, in Forest Grove, on the Pacific University campus. I knew this when I signed up, so this wasn't part of the fail. But, given that (a) the site was relatively remote from the large city center, and (b) both races put together had fewer than 200 participants, insisting on previous-day packet pick-up was just obnoxious. There was a bit where I could have emailed to make arrangements for Saturday pick-up, but it sounded really "frowned-upon" from the wording on the website, so I waited until a few hours before the Friday pick-up session to email, and then didn't hear back. Finally Alberto and I decided we'd better just drive out there during the cleverly-timed 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. (read: rush hour) pick-up session and lose the hour and a half of our time, to make sure I got my packet that evening and could participate.

When we arrived, there were no signs, and it was almost just dumb luck that we spotted the table tucked away under the bleachers of the stadium. Even though only two other people were there picking up at the time I arrived, around 4:15 or 4:30, the man staffing the table seemed really harassed and annoyed that I was there to pick up my stuff (and I promise I was my very most friendly and pleasant self). He also had no idea what the 5K course was going to be. More on that, later.

Once we got back to Portland, the real fail started to reveal itself. For starters, I realized they had given me two numbers, so someone else may have shown up and gone away numberless. (I emailed immediately to let them know I had it, but I don't know whether runner # 1027 ever showed up this morning.) Next, around 6:30 p.m. (note: by which time the scheduled packet pick-up time was almost over and we had long-since returned from our schlep), I received a bulk email saying that "due to popular demand" there would be same-morning pick-up.

It got worse this morning, as we were waiting for the 5K race to begin, when it became clear that not a single one of us knew what the course was. Also, because the "police guy didn't show," there was no official traffic control to keep us safe on the roads, only a couple of race staffers watching the busiest crossing. The race organizer got us started by pulling his car in front of the starting line, honking his horn, and driving away down the first couple of turns of the course.

But worst of all was, after the race and a little opportunity to enjoy my fictional personal best, I checked my RunKeeper and realized that the course had actually only been 2.7 miles long. That's a full 13% too short. No wonder my time was "so good"! (I hoped maybe the fault was in my app, but I looked at the GPS map online, and yeah, that was where we ran, no more, no less.)

So please, take it from me, if you're looking for a race, avoid anything organized by USRA Half Marathon Series. They don't deserve your registration money.

To finish on an up note, however, I will mention that I came in 8th overall out of 19 runners in the 5K event, 6th among women overall (out of 16), 2nd out of women in my age bracket (out of 4). And with a real pace of 9:16, I believe I tied my 2nd best pace (New London, CT, was similar; Gaspee Days, RI, was better). I can say that I'm happy with my own run.

Also? Brunch at Tasty n Sons seriously improved the rest of my day.

I'm sad to be leaving Portland. Maybe I'll come back and run a real 5K someday.

Portland!

Ah, Portland. Home of Bitch Media, my brilliant and lovely friend Alberto, and, according to the Virgin America departures lounge at SFO, more microbreweries inside the city limits than any other city on earth.

I knew I'd like it here.

Portland, or rather the greater Portland area, is also home to my upcoming seventh race in this 50 Races in 50 States project I've taken on. Saturday morning, I'll be running the 5k "Fun Run" event of the Greater Portland Half Marathon at Forest Grove. (Haha, I do love that my race is the "fun run" event. It makes me feel, somehow, so minor league. But then again, when it comes to racing, I am so minor league. So I guess it fits.) [Edit: On rereading the website, I realize that the 5k and "Fun Run" are two separate events. I may still choose to amuse myself with the idea that my race is the JV event.]

I enjoyed a really pretty run around SE Portland today, my final training run before Saturday's race. I ran out to and around Laurelhurst Park, including paths around Firwood Lake, where I saw a family of mallards sunning themselves on a rock. SO cute! It was also nice to run somewhere relatively flat, after my struggles earlier in the week. It had been several days since I'd maintained a pace below 11:00, and it was good to remember that I can.

My introduction to the city of Portland has been even nicer than my introduction to running here. After arriving yesterday, Alberto and I walked to Powell's City of Books (because, as he put it, "obviously"), browsed around, stopped for tea and snacks, and somehow ended up googling microbreweries to find out about gluten-free beer options. Well, long story short, about half an hour later we were at the Northwest Public House in the Alphabet District, and I was drinking a locally-made gluten-free red beer by Harvester Brewing Company and eating some truly awesome gluten-free mac&cheese with mushrooms and caramelized onions and excuse me, I have to stop typing and go back there RIGHT NOW.

 

(Okay, it's only 9:30 a.m., perhaps I can wait.)

Dessert was ice cream from Salt & Straw, whose line out the door and around the corner was very well-deserved.

... Annnnnddd, before this dissolves into a travel/dining blog, I'd better go find myself some breakfast. I'll leave y'all with this bit of brilliance from The Onion.

Triumph! (of a sort)

Found some gentler hills leading up to the park today.

Ran 'em.

And this view was my reward at the top!

In fact, today I ran all* the hills. And I have to say, even though my pace was still about 11:50, I felt pretty good. :-)

*But not this one. This was one thwarted me yesterday, and I knew enough not to go back for more. 

These trails were made for walking ...

I went for a run this morning, and a hike broke out.

So, remember how I was all worried about managing the hills in San Francisco during the race, and then the race course was completely flat? Yeah, I found the hills this morning. Hills that actually prevented me from maintaining anything that could even arguably be called a running stride. Also some gravelly trails adjacent to precarious drop-offs frequently populated with oncoming canines.

I'm awfully stubborn when I'm determined to keep running, against all odds, but I met my match this morning.

Okay, I can own that. There are things I can't do in this world; I know this. I can't lift more than 60 or so pounds. I can't digest gluten. I can't seem to pronounce anything properly in German. I can't safely go wreck diving until I've completed more dive training. I can't sight-transpose for more than a few measures at a time. I can't begin to understand why anyone reads anything by Stephenie Meyer.

But hills? C'mon, I can handle a few measly hills. Can't I?

Oh.

Huh.

Well, as Douglas Adams once said, "A learning experience is something that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" Highlights of this morning's learning experience included turning left on Ogden St. (don't do that), trying to take Bocana St. up to Bernal Heights Park (don't do that), and running up and along the footpaths around the edge of the mound on Bernal Heights Park (seriously, really just don't do that).

On the upside, I think I've found a more manageable route to get me to the edge of the park next time, totally runnable roads all around the base of the park, and a good coffee place where I strategically finished my 3.1 miles (after *sigh* 41:29 of running/hiking time). And the upshot was that I kept my heart rate going by hiking determinedly when I couldn't run, so aerobic exercise was had, meaning the degree of fail was all relative.

Tomorrow is, after all, another day.

6 down, 44 to go!

I ran the San Francisco Marathon this morning!

Huh??

... wait, no, I ran the progressive marathon this morning. Or finished running it, at least. Which is to say, I ran the 5K race after having previously logged 23.1 miles.

Ah. That's more like it.

I had about 45 minutes to kill after I got checked in, so I took the opportunity to wander up and down by the Ferry Building. There's a rocket ship to other destinations in the Milky Way ...

... and a giant bow and arrow, which I saw when I jogged out to the end of Pier 18, trying to warm up.

The timing chips went on our shoes this time, which was a new one for me:

It was wicked crowded at the start, which actually makes sense, since it turns out that there were well over 1,000 runners in this event alone.

This doesn't even begin to show how crowded it got.

But only one from Rhode Island!

(One, who is usually a little more photogenic than this.)

The crowd meant that, instead of my usual burst of unsustainable speed at the very start, I had trouble finding room for my strides and didn't get up to pace for probably several hundred yards. Once I did, though, I felt really good. I worked on lengthening my stride and softening my impact by rolling through my whole foot. When I started getting tired, I caught myself shortening my stride, but I corrected my form and usually passed whoever just passed me.

And in the end?

Run a race, get free stuff!

Official results are still compiling, but the unofficial page (honestly, I have no idea whether that link will work properly) lists me as finishing 222 out of 1,031, with a time of 29:14 and an average pace of 09:25. Not my best ever, but well within my goal of finishing under 30 minutes. And I got a medal*. :-)

Next race is this Saturday, August 4, in Forest Grove, OR. Looking forward to visiting Oregon for the first time! Meanwhile, I'm going to try running up to Bernal Heights Park tomorrow to enjoy the view. Gotta keep training ...

*Note: All progressive marathon finishers got medals.

I did another race!

Longer post coming later today. But for now, I've run, I felt good, and if my official time is around what I think it was then I'm reasonably happy. I'll post the official results, if I can find them, when I post later.

Also, following the theme of yesterday's post, many many thanks to my dear friend Jenson for waking up at 6:00 on a Sunday to drive me to the starting line. That's friendship, folks, and I am blessed.

And now, I'm going to church.

With a little help ...

I'm writing this post from the Virgin America departures lounge at Boston's Logan International Airport. (Thanks for the free wifi, Logan!) I fly to San Francisco today and run my sixth race tomorrow.

Anyone who's been following this blog ... well, has probably given up sometime in the past month and a half that I've failed to update. It turns out that it's hard to train in the summer. I thought, since Rhode Island has been mostly spared the insanely hot weather that's been plaguing most of the rest of the country, that I'd be able to get out and run, but even when the air temperature is under 90°F (which is most of the time), the sun feels strong enough to make me feel icky when I'm trying to run.

The answer, of course, is to get up early enough to run before the sun is very high in the sky. I was sure I was going to do this all summer, but for various reasons, I haven't been feeling rested enough to get up early and run, and I haven't been getting it together enough to fix that.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, I fear.

But it gets better! I spent the past week at a teacher-training workshop at Taft Educational Center, where I had to live pretty much on my school-year sleep schedule again, which meant I could get up and run before breakfast. There was even a perfect three-mile loop created by streets around Taft. This was an ideal opportunity to restart my training regimen and be somewhat back in shape for tomorrow's race. The only problem? There was a seriously nasty hill around the 1.75 mile mark, and Monday morning's run was pretty humbling. Keeping myself motivated to repeat that loop every morning was going to be tough.

Fortunately, I met a fellow runner named Adam at breakfast on Monday morning. Adam mentioned being in training for a marathon, and as it turns out, has completed a marathon or two already as well as an Ironman. Adam is going to be coaching cross country this fall. Adam is a much more accomplished runner than I am.

And, as the case seems to be with many runners, Adam is a very kind and patient person, who was actually interested in running just three miles with me, even at my 11-minute-mile pace. With his encouragement, I got up that hill again on Tuesday and didn't take Wednesday off (and was only half-miserable about the hill). Even though Adam had to take the next two days off due to leg pain, talking to him about my training kept me motivated to get up and run Thursday and yesterday. I got caught in the rain on Thursday and turned around before I got to the hill, but I conquered it on Friday and felt really ready for San Francisco.

(Also, it turns out that the 5K course for tomorrow's race is going to be completely flat. Ha!)

This is just one example of how I'm getting through the next couple of races with a little help from friends, new and old. The main objective of this trip to SF and Portland (OR), after all, is to visit the friends I have out there. They're just nice enough to help me get to my races while I'm there. Including my friend Alberto, who has agreed to get up at the very crack of dawn next Saturday to drive me 45 minutes out to Forest Grove so I can check Oregon off my list.

I am thankful for my friends, new and longtime, named here and not (but probably named here someday).

Stay tuned for news about tomorrow's race ...

Yeah, that can happen.

A day or two ago, the following report from DailyMile.com landed in my inbox, with the subject line, "Weekly Training Report 05/28/2012 - 06/03/2012":

In other words, "Weekly Training Report: YOU DIDN'T."

Yep. Some weeks are just like that.

In previous posts, I've had thoughts to share about reasons why I don't always keep up my running, ways I talk myself into doing it anyway, etc. But this time? I've got nothing. I just didn't want to run, and I just didn't manage to talk myself into wanting to run.

If I have anything to say about this, it's that I've decided to let myself off the hook when this happens. I have a job (teaching), an avocation (music), family and friends to see, commitments to my church and community, and a house and tiny yard that need upkeep. I run because I can, and because I enjoy it. I refuse to let myself feel guilty when I don't. Even if my clothes start getting tight again.

But I am going out for a run in a few minutes, because, in the great scheme of things, it is something I want to do.

Look, I'm "Progressive"!

It's official, I'm signed up to run the "Progressive Marathon" event of The Wipro San Francisco Marathon on Sunday, July 29.

As defined by the SF Marathon folks, a "progressive marathon" means a 5K race where entrants have logged 23.1 mi prior to the event, for a total of 26.2 miles. Get it? To me, it means paying an extra $5 registration fee, logging the training runs I'd be doing anyway on dailymile.com, running the race, and receiving a medal in addition to the usual race shirt and sense of accomplishment. So, really, why not?

And it gets better: The pre-race logging officially started in March, and I joined the challenge at the end of April, and guess what? I've already finished!! Put that together with the fact that I've completed and paid the race registration and bought my plane tickets, and I'm ready to go! Now all I have to do is ... wait two months and nine days, and keep up the running in the meantime.

It's going to be a busy week, by the way. Not only will I check off California (#6) on July 29, but by Saturday, August 4, I'll also have completed a race in Oregon (#7). I have a choice of two: a trail race in a park in Salem on the evening of Thursday, August 2, which was my original plan, or my current preference of the Greater Portland Half-Marathon (5K event) on the morning of August 4. (It will depend partly on how much of an imposition the early start of the Saturday morning race is on the friend I'll be visiting in Portland.)

The Oregon race, whichever I choose, will also be the first race I'll complete on my first-ever visit to the state in question. Only a few races will have this distinction, because I've been fortunate enough to travel around the U.S. pretty extensively in my life. The other states I haven't visited, or at least driven through, are: AK, ID, IA, MT, NE, and WA. This is one of the two especially fun things about this project: getting to see places I haven't seen before. The other especially fun thing will be visiting the friends and family I have scattered about the country. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!

Meanwhile, I'm working on improving my pace. I'd like to get to a 9:00 mi by the end of the summer, but I also want to keep enjoying running. I'm already starting to dread my runs a little because, well, running faster is harder, and I'm inherently kind of lazy. Trying to balance my preference for keeping this fun with the great sense of accomplishment I feel when I manage to run faster. One approach is to come up with other incentives to get myself to run, as mentioned in an earlier post. It would be really cool if I could convince myself to work hard just because working hard is a good thing to do. Hmm, and if I can do that in the context of running, perhaps I can even translate that to other areas of my life?

For now, I'm just going to plan on running again tomorrow morning.

Racing is an ego-free zone

5 down, 45 to go. Yes!

That's 10% of the way to my goal, in under one year! At this rate, I may finish 50 races in 50 states well before I'm 50. But I don't want to jinx anything, of course.

It was a gorgeous day in New London today. Check out that sky behind me!

Just after checking in.

And the race was overall a really nice event. The organizers were great, even when my name wasn't on their pre-registration list. I had pre-registered, but they were having some snags with the whole PayPal thing, and they just took me at my word, had me fill out a new form, and handed me a number and a shirt, no other questions asked. Special shout-out thanks to Jessica, who was really friendly about the whole thing and also chatted with me a bit at the end and expressed enthusiasm about my 50 Races in 50 States project. I don't know whether I'll be able to find time to do this race again in future years, but I would definitely consider it, thanks to the very nice people I met there.

Also, some random other runner very kindly picked up my hat for me when it blew off just about 100 m shy of the finish line. You can't really see the hat in either photo, but it's from my high school ice hockey team, so I would have been really sad to have lost it altogether. The hat decision was mixed in its success: on the one hand, it was a very bright day, and I was glad to have extra help keeping the sun out of my eyes. On the other, it was also pretty breezy, and I kept having to adjust the angle of the brim to keep it from blowing off (any sooner).

Back to the beginning of the race:

It was a little chilly down by the water, and I was kind of regretting the sleeveless top. But, I'd gotten pretty toasty during my warm-up loop around the neighborhood back in RI around 7:30 a.m., and I didn't want to overheat. And I was right, once I was running, I was not missing the sleeves. It was even warmer just a few steps away from the water, at the starting line.

At the starting line. I did warn y'all this would all be self-photography, right?

So, the results: I finished in 28:44 (officially, although my RunKeeper app said 28:36). Official pace was a very respectable 9:16, overall place was 52nd out of 178, division place 8th out of 25 (F 30-39). I'd have to say I'm really quite happy with that!

Which is good, because I'd committed the cardinal sin of going into this race with Expectations. And Expectations are exactly the sort of thing I wasn't going to have when I started this whole racing hobby. When I ran my first race last June, my goal was to finish. Ideally, finish having run the whole thing, and not finishing last would be a great bonus. And then I did really well, relatively speaking, and suddenly I started to get Ideas. Put that together with a pretty slow run in Portsmouth and some better training times in the past couple of weeks, and my Ideas started to turn into the aforementioned Expectations that I would somehow be Fast this time.

And then the horn went off, and all the people who always pass me at the start started passing me, and suddenly there were small children running ahead of me. I mean really small children. And also people who were older than I am, look less "fit" than I think I do (whatever that means), and generally all sorts of folks that my middle-school-arrested ego somehow thought "shouldn't" be able to run faster than I can.

Can we just examine that thought for a moment? A year ago in March, I ran more than half a mile successfully for the first time in my life. Until that point, the list of people who "should" be able to run faster than I can included, oh, pretty much everyone on the planet who'd ever run and probably a bunch who hadn't.

Fortunately, since I don't run races with earphones or a playlist, I had upwards of 28 minutes to think about things, and all of this occurred to me. It occurred to me pretty early, even. In fact, I came up with the title of this post sometime in the bottom half of mile one. Simply put, my ego has no place in a race. My enthusiasm? Sure. My ambition? Hey, why not. But an ego that's based in running faster than other people? That's just going to leave me feeling frustrated at best, and at worst could cause me to push myself hard enough to hurt something. I won't do this that way. I'm going to keep it fun.

The only ego trip I'm going to allow myself from now on? Working on this goal. It's fun, it makes me feel good about myself, and it leaves me room to do all this at my own pace (literally and figuratively) without putting myself at risk for injury. And if I happen to learn, somewhere along the way, that someone else is working toward the same goal (or has perhaps already run a certified marathon in every state plus D.C.), then the more, the merrier.

And with that bit of navel-gazing, I'm going to give my New Balances a rest for a few days. My next race is in San Francisco in late July, and I'm only about 4 miles from completing the pre-race portion of the Progressive Marathon. I think I can afford a week off.

You know. Unless I just happen to feel like going out for a run.

Aches and pains ... and rewards.

My family gathers for a reunion in Ft. Walton Beach, FL, every year in June. When I arrived at the beach last year, I had just completed my first-ever race, and was also seeing all my cousins for the first time in about a year ... a year, during which I had lost about 40 lbs. So, naturally, everyone wanted to talk to me about my visible changes and what I'd done to lose the weight, and when I mentioned running, I quickly learned/was reminded that there are a lot of other current and former runners in the family.

One of my cousins said something which has stuck with me, at least in paraphrase: "Some days [while running], you don't even notice you're doing it, and some days every step hurts." My response was basically, if every step hurts, I don't do it ... but now that I have my 50 races goal, if I'm getting close to a race date, I do sometimes feel obligated to run even when I don't really feel like it.

Now, there's running when I don't feel like it, but then once I'm doing it, it feels good, which is pretty much my normal state of mind because I'm a chronic procrastinator. (Honestly, I'm the same way about practicing my oboe. How I ever got to be a freelancer who actually gets gigs is beyond me.) But then, there's running when I don't feel like it because I'm sick or sore or over-tired and really don't feel like it. After a pretty inactive week last week, I really wanted to get some training in this week so that I would feel ready for this Saturday's race. I had a good run just after posting on Saturday, and then got out again on Monday morning. And this is where things went not-so-well: my lower back had been sore on Sunday, which I'd chalked up to too much standing around in heels during church, and the first maybe 3/4 of a mile of my Monday morning run felt fine ... and then it didn't. I kept going, at a slightly relaxed pace, through the rest of a 5K, but my back hurt kind of a lot by the time I was done, and stayed sore for the next few days. As a result, I've avoided running (and it's been pouring, anyway).

Coincidentally, DailyMile posted an article today about What to Do When Everything Goes Wrong in training. I definitely am guilty of beating myself up when I don't stick to my planned running schedule, and I think there's some advice there I could stand to follow. (Yes, I both procrastinate and beat myself up when I don't stick to my training. Relaxing hobby I've taken up, no?) Anyway, as I keep telling myself, I'm not running to win anything. I'm running to finish 50 races in 50 states. No one said anything about pace or times. Except when I say something about pace or times. And then remind myself that I'm only running to finish.

But, since I have a race this Saturday, I did want to get back out there and run this afternoon. I happened to have my annual physical yesterday, and my doctor indicated that running should actually be good for my back, so since I was free after work today and my back is feeling better and the race is in two days and the rain finally let up, I decided I would go for a run this afternoon. I came home, changed into my running clothes, had a little snack while watching an episode of The Daily Show on Hulu (because I was hungry and, you know, procrastinating a little) ... and promptly fell asleep as soon as the episode was over. This actually worked out, because another few rain squalls blew through in the next hour and I ended up finally feeling ready to run a little before suppertime, just as the sky was finally clearing for real.

Lucky for me, a new taco place just opened up in my neighborhood which offers cheap, fresh, tasty and relatively healthy tacos. By taking a circuitous route, I could stretch it out to a little over 3 miles from my house to there. And what better way to reward myself for finally getting out and running? Sure, the run itself, maintaining a healthy 9:12 pace with my back feeling good and my legs feeling strong, as the late-spring evening sunlight turned toward golden and the weather was warmish with a moderate breeze off the water, could have been considered reward enough.

But all that plus tacos? Even better.

I got three to go (one "green monstah" and two "fun guy"s), and walked home—which is actually only about a mile—in the golden sunshine, my take-out bag in hand, my running playlist still playing in my headphones. Not a bad way to wrap up my training for Race Number Five.

See you in New London on Saturday! And if I don't, you'll get to read about it here.

Anyone for a trip to CT?

One week from today, I'm running my next race: the 5K River Run for the [James A. Greenleaf, Jr., Memorial Scholarship] in New London, CT. It's been quite the week for failing to get out and run, but my training pace has been pretty good when I have gotten a run squeezed in, and I'm excited to do this fifth race (10% of the way to my goal).

As of this writing, this will be my first race without my own, personal cheering section. My parents have been amazing about coming to all four of my races so far, but this is a bit of a hike and a busy time of year for them, so they'll probably have to skip this one. And yet, it's not so far from RI to New London ... The current weather forecast looks pretty good, and the race location looks lovely. What better way to spend a Saturday, eh? Maybe I can talk a few RI friends into joining me? If not, dear readers, please forgive the low-quality self-photography that is likely to accompany the post-race post.

Meanwhile, I suppose I'd better actually go for a run today. Have I mentioned that this week has been the perfect storm of reasons to procrastinate? Between cold, rainy weather, a generally busy schedule, my exhaustion after last week's ridiculous out-of-town gig (which at least had the redeeming factor of giving me the opportunity to hang out with my sister for a bit, but still totally wore me out), and some other biological factors which I will demurely file under "female," I just have not been able to get myself to run.

Oddly, though, the one time I did run (before lunch on Wednesday), I only took a few steps before my body said, "Finally, you're letting me run!" ... and I managed to maintain one of my better training paces yet. Not that it was all that fast, just that it was a little faster than I usually go.

The website for the Greenleaf run says the course is "picturesque, flat and fast!" [exclamation point theirs], so this could be a pretty good race for me.

Maybe you'll be there to see it?

Feeling Progressive ... and Social!

If you've read this blog before today, you may be noticing a new widget in the right sidebar there. (You may also notice that I changed from two sidebars to one, which was because I thought the widget looked weird if I forced it to be too skinny.)

And if you're extra sharp, you may have noticed that not only is the widget new, but this is also the first reference on this blog to DailyMile, which is yet another distance-tracking site.

"But wait!" I hear you cry. "Didn't you just post about how you use RunKeeper? Why on earth would you need more than one site?"

Well, dear theoretical reader, I joined DailyMile for a specific purpose: I'm already looking down the road (no pun intended) past the New London race next month, toward the Wipro San Francisco Marathon events on July 29. Now, before you get excited, I am not running any crazy marathon distance.

Or, that is to say, I am not running any crazy marathon distance all at once.

See, the SF Marathon has a 5K event, which was what I was planning to do for my California race. As I was looking up registration info, though, I noticed something cool called a "progressive marathon." All I have to do is keep track of the running I'm going to be doing, anyway, and pay an extra $5 registration fee. If I can log 23.1 miles before race day (which, given three months, running 3+ miles at least a few times a week, should be doable several times over), I just run the 5K event on the day, and I get a medal and get to feel all awesome for completing more than just that day's 5K! I say, sign me up!

Back to DailyMile, the reason I added that to my repertoire is that the SF Marathon organizers have set up a "Progressive Marathon Tracking Challenge"at that site, and that seems like the easiest way to keep track of my mileage leading up to July 29. For the moment, I'm planning to keep using RunKeeper to do the actual tracking of my runs, and then I'll just have to remember to log them on DailyMile.

And, speaking of social media, I've decided to start a dedicated twitter feed for my running activity. Because, you know, I do so much with my main twitter feed, I had to keep things separate. Okay, actually, it's just how my brain works. Ok?

So, if you'd like to see my RunKeeper and DailyMile updates, see notifications when I post here, etc., feel free to follow me @RunNenaRun.

See you again soon!

Runkeeper

I'm getting back into the swing of things, preparing to run the New London race in a couple of weeks. I could use the old "busy" excuse for not getting out to run, but really I wasn't finding the time. But, I did get out today, and managed most of a 5K at a much better pace than usual (a little under 10:00/mi, which is good for me).

I use Runkeeper (and, specifically, its iPhone app) to keep track of my runs. If anyone out there who's my Facebook friend or otherwise knows me would like to join my "street team" on Runkeeper and keep an eye on my there, feel free to check out my profile.

Next run will hopefully be tomorrow morning ... stay tuned!

Getting Ready for the 10% Mark!

Today, I registered for my next race. It will be another 5K, this time in New London, CT: the 5K River Run for the Fund. As with my previous race, I found it only by googling running races in a state I hadn't covered yet, so I can't take credit for choosing a good cause. Having chosen it, however, I can encourage anyone reading this to help out:

From what I'm finding on the website, the "Fund" in question is the James A. Greenleaf Memorial Scholarship Fund. Founded after the tragic death of James Greenleaf in 2001, the fund now provides "financial assistance to students attending St. Bernards High School as well as graduating seniors from Waterford High School, Fitch High School and New London High School towards their college tuition."

If you would like to contribute to the fund, please find instructions by following this link.

Meanwhile, I guess I'd better get out and run some more. I did ok in Portsmouth without much of any training, but I'd like to improve on that showing for this one.

Looking forward to finishing this one, and being 10% done! Hard to believe that's happening already!

4 down, 46 to go

The short version? I did it.

It was a very warm day in Portsmouth, NH, today. The high temperatures got to around 80°F, and running on pavement, some of which was new enough still to be pretty dark, got pretty steamy.

But before there was running, there was a really nice community hanging out in the parking lot of Martin's Point Healthcare in the Pease Tradeport area of Portsmouth. On this sunny Sunday afternoon, it was quiet in the largely industrial area, except for all the organizers, volunteers, families and runners who were making the event happen. Under a bright, blue sky, with just a few fluffy clouds floating through the sky, it was hard to focus on the clothesline of t-shirts drying in the breeze which displayed slogans in support of childhood sexual assault survivors and their families: a sobering reminder of the reason for the event, which was a fundraiser for SASS (Sexual Assault Support Services).

Vendors and sponsors from around Portsmouth and beyond had chipped in to provide breakfast, lunch, trash removal (there were composting bins for my banana peel!) and funding for the sound system, race timing, etc.

It's not cool to post photos of other people's small children, so I won't, but trust me, the children's "fun run" was about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Some of the entrants can't have been much more than 2 years old, and churned their chubby little legs across the lawn hand-in-hand with parents and older siblings to the cheers of all. The bigger kids were faster, and ran twice as far, but the little ones were the real stars.

And then it was time for us ...

As I said earlier, it was hot. And I hadn't really trained for this one. I think I'd gone running about three times in the previous few weeks, which were my first actual runs since November. I'd run 5 km each time, comfortably and in reasonable time, so I hadn't worried about it too much. Given the hot weather, though, I found myself wishing I'd done some more preparation and especially some more hydration.

Still, I made it to the finish line, and finished near the middle of the pack: 90th out of 163, 31:15.27.

There was free lunch being provided by a local restaurant, but as a gluten-free vegetarian (more about that at my other blog), there wasn't much there I could eat. Instead, my cheering section (aka my parents) and I headed downtown to Flatbread Company for some well-earned pizza and a little spiked lemonade ...

All in all, a satisfactory day! Many thanks to my generous parents for the company, transportation, photography (all photos by Helen Young, aka Mom) and lunch.

See you next month for the 5K River Run in New London, CT. (And perhaps some training commentary sooner.)

Sunday is Number Four

This Sunday, April 15, I will be running the "5th Annual 5K Race to Keep Kids Safe." The race is planned to benefit SASS (Sexual Assault Support Services), an organization which apparently gives support and counseling to children who have been victims of child sexual abuse, and their families. This is an incredibly good cause, but before I take too much credit for participating in this laudable event, I should admit that SASS is not the reason I'm running this race. The reason I'm running this race, is that it's in Portsmouth, NH.

NH makes four.

Slightly over a year ago, I ran more than a mile successfully for probably the first time in my life. The previous fall, I was still getting so winded around the half-mile mark that I'd have to stop and walk. But somehow, after a winter of doing my Wii Fit Plus's "free run" (running in place in front of the TV) for 30 minutes a day, I found that I could run 2 1/2 miles quite easily.

Me being me, next thing I did was to sign up for my first 5K.

On June 11, 2011, I ran the Gaspee 5K in Pawtuxet Village (Cranston/Warwick), RI, finishing my first race in 26:59.4, which was good enough for 397th place out of 918 overall, 54th out of 205 in my class. I was thrilled: I honestly had just wanted to run the whole thing, and finish preferably not last. I could really do this running thing! Never going to be an olympian or anything, but I could walk tall and say, "yeah, I'm a runner."

I must have, as they say, gotten the bug or something. Because when my mom presented me about a week later with a registration form for a race in my hometown in Massachusetts, I only hesitated slightly before signing up. Sure, 5 miles is 60% longer than 5 km, but I could do it, right?

Right. July 2, 2011: 46:29, 42nd out of 64, 2nd out of 4 in my class. (There was a 1 mile event, too, which tended to limit the 5 mile event to the more serious runners. And, you know, me.)

Me being me, I decided two races in two states needed to be the beginning of a bigger trend. I remembered my godmother mentioning a 10K race in South Freeport, ME, and thought I'd check it out. Turns out it was two days later, and that was slightly short notice for adding another 1.2 miles to my endurance.

But, there was another one coming up in November! You guessed it: the 30th Annual Great Osprey 10K, Saturday, November 5, 2011. 1:00:31, 211th out of 291 overall (never found out my place in my class, although I suppose I could count if I were really determined).

Well, at that point, as the Starks say, winter was coming. And now as spring approaches again, even in fits and starts as it is choosing to do this year, it's time to pick up where I left off: 3 states down, 47 to go.

I've completed official races in three states: RI, MA and ME. Lord willing and the creeks don't rise, I hope to be in good enough health to run for many years to come. That's plenty of time to knock off the rest.

This Sunday? I'm making it 4 down, 46 to go.

Also on the docket for 2012: CT, CA, OR, VT and TN. In that order. But don't let me get ahead of myself. I'll tell you all about those races as they get closer.